Different network services, such as cable television and telephone services, traditionally have been developed for use over different types of networks. For example, telephone services traditionally has been developed around the public switched telephone network (the “PSTN”), while cable television services traditionally have been developed around the cable television network.
To provide a network service, a network access device (commonly known to as “Data Communications Equipment” or “DCE”) commonly is used to connect a network device (e.g., a telephone or television) to the network. More particularly, the DCE provides network devices known as “Data Termination Equipment” (“DTE”) with access to their underlying network. For additional information relating to DCEs and DTEs, see the family of standards relating to recommended standard-232 (often referred to as “RS-232”), which is a widely used standard interface approved by the Electronic Industries Alliance (“EIA”) for connecting serial devices.
The above noted interrelationship between service and network type has caused the network service industry to develop network access equipment (DCEs) that provides a specific service over its corresponding traditional network only. Continuing with the above example, the provision of cable television services commonly requires use of a cable conversion box (“cable box,” which is a type of DCE) that provides the direct connection to the cable network. In a manner similar to DCEs for other types of networks/services, the cable box typically includes medium interface circuitry for conforming data transmissions with the specifications required by cable networks (e.g., the well known DOCSIS standards, discussed herein), and service delivery circuitry that provides the higher level television services to a connected television (i.e., functions perceived by the user of the DTE). Among other functions, such service delivery circuitry may provide access to a selected set of television stations (e.g., based upon a user's subscription to a cable company), and channel mapping functionality that maps a cable channel to a channel on the attached television.
In recent years, however, the trend has been to provide a single service via any one of numerous different types of networks. For example, telephone services currently can be delivered via the circuit switched technology in the PSTN, or via a broadband network, such as a cable network or fiber optic network. Accordingly, a single DCE for use with the telephone services must be produced for use with each network/medium type. For example, a separate telephony DCE must be developed for use with each of cable networks, fiber optic networks, wireless networks, etc . . . . With the proliferation of network services and broadband types/uses, this requires a rather wide variety of DCEs for each service, and for each network type. Although currently necessary, this duplication is inefficient, and causes relatively high deployment costs for various network services and network types.